The second day started at mid-afternoon, with Sotz’ doing the honors. Here’s a band that’s been improving their performance at every show, and consequently winning over more fans – 4:30 p.m. and a large number of people ready to shout out and mosh around their support. Without any kind of disrespect for previous line-ups, I believe the current one is the most efficient in living up to the aggressive impact the band yearns for their sound.
I’m not sure if the crowd was singing along – Dan Vesca is pretty hard to follow up – but they clearly recognized the tracks off the EP “Tzak’ Sotz’” and the recent single “Baak’”.

Another band that’s grown a lot since the first time I’ve seen them a couple of years ago is In Vein. Raising Legends has been doing a hell of a job managing them, getting them to play practically everywhere, to the point where I confess I rolled my eyes when seeing their name on this bill. My sincere apologies – it was well deserved. Songs such as “S.A.T.A.N.”, “Paranoia” or “Infinite Night” fueled the headbanging and the horns in the air – singer António Rocha tried to convince the firemen to join the latter at some point, but they just smiled.

Representing a rockier side of metal, we got Nine O Nine, guitarist Tó Pica’s new band. Introducing their debut “The Time Is Now”, released in February, Louro was filled with the enthralling melodies of “Big Event”, “Beauty Femme” and “Sofia” – dedicated not just to all Sofias but to every woman in the audience. Singer/bassist Sérgio Duarte didn’t want us to get the idea that NON were mellow, so they finished their set with the brisker “The Rush”.

The Estrella Galicia stage closed for the moment and the spotlight turned to the main stage, Porminho, with Hills Have Eyes spreading their usual vitality. Fábio Batista’s voice was a bit worn down but he himself was jumping all around, so it made no real difference in the intensity of the music. Plus bassist Luís Silva backed him up, making sure all lines were sung. Splitting their setlist between the two most recent albums, but visiting “Black Book” through “Unneurotic” and the new single “Never Quit”, Fábio thanked the people that probably weren’t much into their sound but still were there, watching them and showing them respect. This and the little speech that always goes along “Anyway It’s Gone”, about music being music, no matter the label, hence they’d never decline an invitation for a “metal festival”.

From metalcore to groove, Equaleft was the epitome of the “may the force be with you” slogan which their singer Miguel Inglês loves so much. They’ve been recording the successor to “Adapt & Survive” and even if the title or release date weren’t revealed yet, a live promotion is running already: “We Defy”, “Once Upon A Failure”, “Strive”, “Endless” and “Overcoming” made part of the band’s set and were tremendously cherished. Still, the highlight was “the lightsabre song” – the classic “Invigorate” – where Sotz’-Dan Vesca was a spontaneous guest. During the last song, “Maniac”, Miguel crowdsurfed while singing and then rewarded the fans with cookies. As usual.

When promoter Aguiar Silva got on stage to address the audience, I thought he was going to introduce the headliners; it was something much more noble than that. In case you don’t know, SepticFlesh come from Greece, where several wildfires have taken about a hundred lives. Portugal went through a similar tragedy last summer, so more than sympathetic with the situation, we related. Therefor when Aguiar asked not for a minute of silence but half a minute of applause for the souls lost in those fires, Louro trembled. Singer/bassist Spiros Antoniou himself would dedicate “Prometheus” to the same souls – after all, in Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans. But before that, songs such “Martyr”, “The Vampire Of Nazareth” or “Prototype” had already left the crowd in total rapture. Spiros dislocated his shoulder a few weeks ago, and even if everything’s okay now, he still couldn’t raise his arm/fist as high as he wished to, so he wanted our help to do it for him. We obviously complied. 10-year-old “Anubis” and last year’s “Dark Art” built the encore of a stellar show.

Mata-Ratos spent almost a decade without any new material but their life on the road rarely took a break – that being the reason why their original schedule on Saturday was anticipated to Friday (something about a show in Spain). “Banda Sonora do Apocalipse Anunciado” was released in 2016, but needless to say that it was songs from almost 20 years ago – “A Minha Sogra É Um Boi”, “Amor Eterno” or “CCM” – that brought out the inner punk in all of us. Singer Miguel Newton still paces the stage through and through like a lion in a cage, but I’ve managed to frame him more clearly – he’s either slowed down a bit with age or I’m just getting more skilled.

Back to the Estrella Galicia stage to watch the final band: only Web to have such a numerous and loud crowd at 2 in the morning. They’ve been somewhat away from the stages, writing the successor to “Everything Ends”, but unlike Equaleft, nothing new was revealed – well, except for the intro, that was a new one. And guitarist Filipe Ferreira’s posture! Web is the band I’ve seen the most in these +20 years of attending metal concerts and this was the first time Filipe made me wonder if they got sponsored by some energy drink. “Vendetta” was the last live song of the night, before António Freitas assumed the role of DJ.

Fourth edition of Laurus Nobilis Music Famalicão, first one fully dedicated to metal in all its varieties. Those first three editions we’ve covered the first day only, which was the heaviest one. Now we’re proud to bring you coverage of the whole fest.

Last year the organization had already set a second stage for big bands still climbing the popularity ladder (calling them “smaller bands” wouldn’t be fair or accurate at all). This year that stage was a bit larger and endorsed, hence named after, the Spanish beer Estrella Galicia – Galicia being the community where the first band Atreides came from as well. The opening day served as a warm-up, with only the Estrella Galicia stage active and four acts on the bill, so the melodic heavy metal of Atreides started echoing around eight-thirty in the evening. The crowd wasn’t big, true, but I confess it was much bigger than I’d expected – and also more responsive towards a band clearly unknown to them, despite their two studio albums. Songs like “Frágiles” or “Laberintos” caused quite an impression – including in some little kids who were tagging along their parents but having a ball on their own.

Things got a bit more hardcore with Booby Trap’s crossover. The most veteran band on that day’s bill got a more aggressive feedback, just like their sound, but still they tried to convince the people in the back to get closer to the stage and join the party – unsuccessful, not even after guitarist Wild Bull provoked them by calling them something like “pussies”. Anyway, “Survive”, “Overloaded”, “Drunkenstein” (my favorite) or Motörhead’s “Ace Of Spades” (which they covered long before Lemmy’s death) kept the audience pretty hyped.

Cruz de Ferro is Portuguese for “iron cross”, so that alone gives you an idea what kind of metal they play and what they sing about – yep, traditional heavy metal about Portuguese battles and history in general. They had a handful of devoted fans in the front row, raising their fists and singing along loudly. To those, singer/guitarist Ricardo Pombo exclusively dedicated “Ritual da Cruz” (ritual of the cross), apologizing to the rest of the people attending the festival. But since they’ve played for the very first time a new song called “Soldado Desconhecido” (unknown soldier) – in memory of all Portuguese soldiers who lost their lives in the second Great War – I guess no one minded to be left out of the aforementioned dedicatory.

But it was Infraktor’s “ferocious metal” that got the most out of the crowd, proving the promoters right when they chose such a young band to headline the first day. Well, young as Infraktor, who released their debut album “Exhaust” early this year – the members are all old-school ambassadors of the national underground, as I’ve told you when I reviewed said debut (here).
From “Blood Of The Weak” to “Ferocious Intent”, this was the night’s most intense performance – both on and off stage. Some people were singing along the choruses, but in order to everyone give use to their vocal chords, Pantera’s “Strength Beyond Strength” wrapped up the show, as someone in the crowd “guessed”. Singer Hugo Silva joked, asking him if he had peeked at the setlist, but knowing that he’d just attended some previous Infraktor concert.

Escape The Fate have conquered a few million fans over the past decade with their modern alternative rock. That’s still the best way to describe their sound, although with “I Am Human” it has lost a bit of its original edge. One could say it’s heading towards a more mainstream direction, but let’s face it – they’ve always been down that road. But now there’s a refinement to it, a maturity that gives texture to all the catchiness and class to the briskness. Some of the guitar work has even hints of the eighties, the solos in “I Will Make It Up To You” and “Beautifully Tragic” being the most notorious.

On the other hand, we have more “up-to-date” tunes, such as “Empire”, featuring this decade’s trend of blending the most spirited anger with the most fetching melody. Speaking of melodies, the mandatory ballad comes in the form of “Bleed For Me”. Not exactly extraordinary, but it serves its purpose of touching your heart.

Touching are also the lyrics of “If Only”, contradicting the chirpy acoustic chords provided. The kind of song you associate with Summer camps, even if these usually don’t bear so much regret. “Let Me Be”, however, is lighthearted enough to make you want to dance to its rhythm and sing-along cheerfully.

The title-track is quite seductive, but my personal favorite is “Do You Love Me” – the bass in this album is so overlooked that it’s refreshing to feel its vibrancy in this song.

All in all is a pretty pleasant record. Its new path didn’t take such a dramatic detour – especially when you’re able to recognize the step forward it represents in song-writing – but indeed some of the most hardcore fans of the band may be disappointed. At the sane time, “I Am Human” is prone to gain them a handful of new ones.

“Winter’s Gate” is the name of Insomnium’s latest album and therefore the name of the tour – even if the release is one-year-and-a-half old. Plus, given the cold wave that’s been washing over Europe when Spring was supposed to be settling in, “Winter’s Gate” sounds pretty fitting.
Monday night, the crisp weather, the 2-band bill instead of the usual 3, the ticket price somewhat higher than normal… I confess I was expecting a poor crowd in terms of numbers. Well sometimes it feels good to be wrong and see that, after all these years, your hometown can still positively surprise you.What I didn’t like to be wrong about was the duration of Tribulation’s gig. Sure, I knew this wasn’t a co-headlining tour, but since there was no other band on the bill, I was hoping for a little more than 45 minutes – especially when they have a new album to promote as well. “Down Below” was released in January and only a third of its fantastic tracks were performed – “Lady Death”, “Nightbound” and “The Lament”. Of course we wanted to hear everything else they’ve played, from their previous works, but we wanted more – hence the 45-minute slot not being enough. I remember the first time Insomnium played here, eight years ago, asking us to buy something at the merch stand in order to “help the little guys”. Here they were this night, not so little anymore, so let’s cross fingers that next time Tribulation come here they’ll be headlining their own show. And that it won’t take that long – even if there’s only 5 years left to complete the 8 since the first time they’ve played in Porto.
The “Down Below” artwork is in shades of red and black but the lights during Tribulation gig were green. And black. Too much black. It was pretty hard to capture those enthralling movements of Jonathan and the devilish faces of Adam; but then again, no still image can truly show what one experiences at a Tribulation gig.

The darkness came back in full when the Police Academy theme echoed – Insomnium’s intro – but then went on. And on and on. There were only glimpses of a weak light during the whole performance of “Winter’s Gate” (in case you don’t know, the new album has just one 40-minute-long track, divided in 6 parts, although the second, “The Golden Wolf”, is subdivided in two). If the idea was to illustrate the long winter nights they have in Finland, congratulations, you’ve made it! Wasn’t the spirited vibrancy of their performance – and the matching feedback from the crowd – and it would’ve been pretty depressing.
After Insomnium closed their winter’s gate, “The Primeval Dark” lived up to the exact opposite of its name and the room lit up like a summer day. By then I had retreated to enjoy songs like “Mortal Share”, “Weather The Storm” or “The Promethean Song” in the far back – so no bright pics, sorry.
The photographer in me left the venue frustrated, but the music lover had her heart full – and a pleasant smile for the first chords of Moonspell’s “Alma Mater” that preceded the encore “Only One Who Waits”.

The two missing names in the Laurus Nobilis Music 2018 bill have been revealed: Atreides and The Godiva. The former hails from Northern Spain and the latter from Famalicão, hometown of the festival itself.

The Godiva were quite popular in the Portuguese underground back in the early 2000s, until they decided to step away for an unknown-period-of-time. The hiatus is now over and they will close this year’s edition of Laurus Nobilis Music Famalicão. Here’s the full schedule:

Metal DJs will entertain the crowd every night for about an hour, after the last band leaves the stage.

In Portugal, scheduling an event for 7 p.m. in the middle of the week isn’t going to work out very well for the opening acts; but with four bands on the bill and an almost two-hour-slot for the headliners, there’s not much the promoter can do. Speaking of, a big thank you to Carlos Freitas and the whole Notredame Productions team for bringing such show to us and for letting Valkyrian Music cover it.

Midnight Eternal was the first band on stage. Frankly, I’d never heard of them before, but then again, symphonic power metal with a female lyric voice – and occasional male growls – isn’t exactly my cup of tea… Among the few people at the venue by that hour, there were a handful responding enthusiastically to their music – either they knew them already or the band caused quite the first impression on fans of the genre. Yep, they’re good.

Introducing their self-titled debut album, released in 2016, the band from New Jersey – as said by Raine Hilai; you shouldn’t trust everything you read on Facebook, where their page locates them in Manhattan/New York – charmed the small but “loud” (using Raine’s own words) crowd with songs such as the “first song they’ve ever written” “Masquerade Of Lies”, “Signs Of Fire” and the almost-9-minute long “First Time Thrill”.

Female singer as well, but completely different posture, Null Positiv followed suit. That so-German alternative, post-industrial sound which “recognizes the signs of the times”, to quote their own motto. Even if Elli Berlin joined Therion on stage to sing “Din” later on, this was the most “displaced” band on the bill, but given their feisty performance, “diversity is the spice of life” earned a new meaning. “Hass”, “Labyrinth”, “Friss Dich Auf” or “Koma” were just some of the songs that left the crowd – considerably bigger now – pretty hyped, Null Positiv’s impact being the exact opposite to their name.

If the Germans were the furthest from Therion in genre, Russian Imperial Age were the closest, with their symphonic/opera metal. The release of their third album earlier this month outlined their setlist, but they couldn’t go without performing “Anthem Of Valour” or “Aryavarta”. The combination of Aor’s tenor voice with Kiara’s soprano and Corn’s mezzo soprano, spiced up here and there by some growls of Vredes and Belf, filled the venue with a supreme vibrancy, overlaying striking melodies welcomed by everyone.

With such foreplay, it took only the first chords of “Theme Of Antichrist” to drive the crowd to a climax which would last throughout the almost-2-hour long performance of Therion. Some highlights of their latest opera – including “Temple Of New Jerusalem”, which Thomas Vikström introduced by asking us to imagine ourselves inside a church, adding right away “boring, I know” – mingled with highlights of their whole career and we’ve witnessed a hell of a show (pun intended regarding “Beloved Antichrist”). Vikström was pretty talkative, as his usual, but the final words had to come out of founding member Christofer Johnsson. He remembered the last time they’d played in Porto, 20 years before – yes, 20! – and asked if any of us had been there. A few had – me included – and so he thanked us for the “old school support”. And he asked us to scream the title of the song that, like then – and almost always – finishes their shows, the imperative “To Mega Therion”.

Ever since its first edition, back in 2015 we’ve been supporting and covering the “metal day” of Laurus Nobilis Music Famalicão, in Portugal. Last year saw the growth of the bill, by adding a secondary stage, and this year we see the “growth of weight”, as all three days will be heavy ones. Needless to say, we’ll be covering the full festival this time.

There are still two bands to announce, but so far it features some of the Portuguese finest. As for the international headlining acts, we’ll have Dark Tranquillity and Septicflesh:

We’ll get back to you with the full schedule as soon as the two last bands are revealed.